1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems for simulating parameters of electronic circuits and, more specifically, to a system that simulates temperature and resistance in a circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
With integrated circuit (IC) fabrication technology scaling below 90 nm nodes, power supply voltages of IC chips have been reduced to 1.2 V and below in order to reduce power consumption and increase functionality. Due to the low noise margin and threshold level voltage of such circuits, DC voltage drop analysis in package level and board level is becoming increasingly important. However, due to the continuing growth of IC integration density, the power density of a single chip can increase beyond 100 W/cm2. In addition, with three dimensional (3D) system integration enabled by through-silicon via (TSV) technology, the power density in 3D integrated systems is expected to become much larger. As a result, thermal analysis of IC's is becoming critical in the design process.
Due to the temperature-dependent electrical resistivity, temperature is becoming an important factor in the direct current (DC) IR (i.e., voltage) drop simulations. In the past, DC IR drop analysis has been based on equivalent circuit approaches. However, temperature-dependent resistivity has not been considered in such approaches. In order to capture the temperature effects on DC IR drop in 3D integrated systems, an electrical-thermal co-simulation method has been attempted and the effects of system components on electrical and thermal characteristics of power delivery networks (PDN) in 3D system integration have been studied. However, such approaches have not taken into account temperature distribution across the geometry of the integrated circuit, nor have they considered the effects of convection and fluidic cooling. As a result, circuit designers have not been able to examine temperature effects on an integrated circuit in relation to specific adjustments to a circuit design.
Therefore, there is a need for a circuit simulation system that relates temperature variation to IR drop across a circuit.